My life with a big dollop of m/m romance for fun

Tailor Made by Josephine Myles

College tart Felix McAvoy is used to causing a stir with his conceptual art pranks, but for his final show he’s planning something even more outrageous. In a last ditch attempt to seduce his jaded tutor, Felix plans to wear the canvas in a subversive display. However, if he’s going to do this right he’ll need a tailor-made canvas suit. Fortunately, he knows just the tailor to turn to for the favour—and Felix isn’t shy about offering favours of a very different kind in return.

First year fashion student Andrew Wheeler knows Felix by reputation only—and plans to keep things that way. Andrew’s determined to save himself for the man of his dreams, and Felix couldn’t be more different from his ideal Mr. Right. There’s only one use Andrew will contemplate for Felix’s body: a model for his end of year project. Trouble is, it’s going to involve a lot of close contact with a nearly naked Felix, and Andrew’s never had temptation quite so close at hand…

Review:

Josephine Myles has a way of taking characters, who at first blush for me seem rather annoying and obnoxious and then making me fall in love with them. Felix is that characters. He’s brash, uses offers of sex to get what he wants and doesn’t make any bones about it. When he tries to strike a deal with fashion design student Andrew, he figures sex is a great exchange for a suit he can use for one of his wacky fine arts final projects. He’s a bit taken aback by the fact that Andrew doesn’t really take him up on the deal. However when Andrew’s model for the final fashion show drops out, he asks Felix to act as substitute model in exchange for the suit he wants.

Andrew is a mystery to Felix. He doesn’t drink, smoke and he’s a virgin. However Felix has more of an effect on Andrew than he’d like to admit. Andrew is holding out for my Right, not Mr. Right here in front of me. Despite being attracted to Andrew, when Felix finds out he’s a Catholic he remains determined to avoid any entanglements. That’s where the author starts letting you see those little glimpses of the real person who you could really like, and not just the slightly jerky exterior.

I loved the whole rather mocking look, from Felix himself, of that modern art trend of throwing rotten eggs at a car and calling it art or putting dead piglets in a jar of oil. You know the type. It’s fun to see that environment from the inside, including Felix’s super-snobby tutor who he’s been desperately trying to hook up with and wants to impress. The author knows her fabrics and sewing, that is clear, but details didn’t overwhelm the story, just enough to make it interesting even if you know nothing about clothing construction.

So this is an absolutely charming read, and yes, they have a little tiff and there is a misunderstanding of sorts, but I always try to remember when reading stories about people in university or college, they are young and stupid, like we all were and I can’t hold them to the same level of logic as an old lady like me. :-) Thankfully it doesn’t take them long to work it all out. There was also some lovely descriptions of the city of Bath, which I’ve never visited but by the sounds of the hills, maybe I’d better be in better shape before I do.

A really appealing story with evidence of the author’s humour which had me laughing out loud at one point. At poor Andrew’s expense. I highly recommend this one.

Hottie of the moment

I read, a lot; I review, quite a bit; I write, some; I parent, most of the time; I travel, whenever I can.

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